Today, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of DoubleClick Studio Layouts, a rich media production tool that makes it easier to build and publish rich media and HTML5 ads.

Rich media formats are becoming a mainstay for brand advertisers, who are expected to increase their rich media spend by ~150% over the next four years.* Rich media’s continued growth is due in large part to it’s ability to help brands bring their stories to life online. (Check out our recent iMedia article for examples of great digital storytelling.) But although rich media ads are recognized as a critical vehicle for digital advertising, the tools to produce these ads are still too complex and time-consuming. The insurgence of mobile advertising and HTML5 has only made the process even more complicated. In fact, ad production can consume up to 80% of a creative agency’s time, leaving only 20% for the strategic, innovative thinking.

We want to invert that statistic.

With today’s launch, you no longer have to toil through the hand-coding of a long tear sheet, or undergo multiple creative revisions for a simple ad. Studio Layouts provides a pre-built rich media ad shell, so you can simply select a layout, upload your existing assets and publish. You can even build HTML5 ads using the same basic assets. Because the structure of the ad is already created for you, there are fewer places for the creative to break, meaning your ads can get through QA with few to zero revisions. With Studio Layouts, you can build rich media and HTML5 ads much faster, reach more people with your existing assets and upgrade your basic image ads to rich media. Let’s see how these benefits came to life with Samsung Turkey for their recent Galaxy S4 campaign. (Full case study here.)

Efficiency: Build rich media and HTML5 ads fasterSamsung Turkey launched a rich media campaign in 90% less time than they could have before Layouts. They built a three-video GDN lightbox ad in 15 minutes and completed quality assurance in three hours with no revisions. Not only was the turn-around time greatly reduced, but the campaign was also successful in driving consumer engagement. In one month, 20 million impressions were served to 2.4 million unique users, with an engagement rate of 2.73%. More than 60,000 viewers watched the videos through to the end, and the cost per engagement was low, at less than 10 cents US.

Samsung’s GDN lightbox unit begins as a 300x250, and expands when a user hovers over the ad for two seconds. The expanded state can accommodate three YouTube videos.

Reach: Get more mileage out of existing assetsSamsung was able to take their YouTube videos and quickly turn them into a rich media ad, syndicating their existing content across the internet. They could also take those same assets, plug them into an HTML5 layout and reach people on mobile and tablet devices as well, without having to code a thing.

Performance: Upgrade standard flash and image ads to rich mediaFinally, by using rich media to distribute their videos, Samsung gained access to rich media metrics, such as interaction and video completion rates. “The campaign data showed that we were reaching the right customer at the right place and at the right time,” says Seda Gumustas, digital marketing manager for Samsung Turkey. This data gives advertisers the ability to understand how users are engaging with their brands and gauge success of their campaigns in ways not possible before.

What’s Launching today?Today, we’re launching Studio Layouts to the public, and we’ll continue to roll out new Layouts formats and features over the next six months. In the coming weeks, we’ll be launching Layouts for the IAB Rising Star formats Cascade, Billboard, and Sidekick, as well as an HTML5 GDN Lightbox format.

If you are already a DoubleClick Studio user, you’ll notice the new Layouts tab in the top green navigation bar of the UI. There you’ll find the Layouts Gallery with descriptions for how to begin using the tool.

To learn more about Studio Layouts, visit our landing page on the Rich Media Gallery.